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The governing body of a primary school in Preston, which was recently rated as “inadequate” by Ofsted inspectors, has been replaced – with its former chair launching a blistering public attack on senior education officials.
In a letter to the parents of pupils at Eldon Primary School, Abu Patel announced that he and the entire governing body had quit, ahead of the local authority-run school being converted into an academy.
However, Lancashire County Council says plans were already in place to install an interim executive board (IEB), which would have resulted in the existing governors being removed even if they had not chosen to stand down. Blog Preston understands Lancashire County Council is considering legal action as a result of the letter.
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Mr. Patel also took the opportunity of his farewell letter to parents to accuse county council officers of turning “a blind eye…to several years of mistreatment of school staff” – and even contributing to it.
He suggested “malign forces” had been at work, from which governors had tried to “protect” the school.
The explosive allegations from the now former chair come in the wake of a damning Ofsted inspection report last month which downgraded the Plungington school to the lowest possible rating from the “outstanding” status it achieved seven years ago.
The regulator concluded that a “sustained high turnover in staffing” and “fractured relationships between the school, some parents and carers and the local authority” had made “a considerable contribution to the decline in pupils’ education”.
However, inspectors did praise elements of several aspects of school life – including pupil behaviour and the opportunities available to them.
Governors had attempted to delay the publication of the report with the wellbeing of staff in mind. They were initially successful but Ofsted later made it public despite claims safeguarding was not in place.
Mr. Patel revealed in his letter that Blackburn-based Star Academies has been selected by the Department for Education (DfE) to take control of Eldon. They describe themselves as a ‘diverse network of faith and non-faith schools’.
A local campaign – ‘Save Eldon Primary’ – was launched last month in an attempt to stave off academy status being imposed on the school, which is the nationally-mandated next move after an inadequate inspection rating. The school is appealing against the judgement- although as the challenge was made by the now departed governing body, its current status is unclear.
Mr. Patel singled-out three education officials at Lancashire County Council – whose names Blog Preston has decided not to publish – for particular criticism.
He said: “As governors, we have done our best to protect our community school from malign forces at Lancashire County Council, where [named individuals] have turned a blind eye or contributed to several years of mistreatment of school staff and, more recently, bullying and harassment of Eldon’s governors to give false assurances to get government ministers off their back.
“These highly-paid executives utter words of support to staff in the media, but their actions in private show nothing of the sort. Governors have seen deeply duplicitous behaviour from unaccountable leaders and officers at LCC, some of whom have been caught up in a scandal where they are suspected of sharing confidential information about staff members’ disability and health conditions.”
In response to the claims made, Lancashire County Council told Blog Preston: “Following the recent Ofsted report that led the school to be eligible for intervention, an Academy Order was made by the Secretary of State.
“Whilst the school is transitioning to academy status, the council consulted the governing body on a proposal to constitute a new governing body as an interim executive board.
“The Department for Education approved the decision to establish an interim executive board (IEB) so that the governors can focus on the strategic direction of the school.
“Letters to the previous governing board were circulated to members from 5pm on 7th October where they were informed that they would be replaced by the IEB on 8th October. We would like to thank the governors for their support to the school.
“The new IEB members are now in place and will be working with staff and the whole school community to move things forwards at pace.
“Interim Executive Boards have the same delegated powers as a governing body and will therefore carry out their duties in the same way.
“We would like to reassure parents, carers and the wider school community that we will continue to fully support the school during this time and they will be kept informed of developments throughout this journey.”
An IEB acts as a temporary board of governors and can be imposed on a maintained school which has become ‘eligible for intervention’ by the local authority as a result of poor performance.
Blog Preston has also approached Star Academies about its plans for Eldon. Mr. Patel’s letter stated that the DfE will meet its North West Advisory Board on 17th October to confirm the decision over the school joining the multi-academy trust, which runs 37 schools nationwide.
Union uproar
Abu Patel also heavily criticised National Education Union (NEU) official Ian Watkinson, accusing him of “misrepresenting the reality of Eldon school staff to Ofsted inspectors and the media”. The former chair’s letter to parents claimed that every NEU staff member at the school had “resigned their union membership in disgust”.
However, Mr. Watkinson told the LDRS that membership data “doesn’t reflect the claims of a mass exit of of NEU members”
“We have always had a strong membership at the school, despite the ‘sustained high turnover in staffing’ that Ofsted highlighted in their report,” he added.
Last year, the LDRS revealed teaching union concerns that all but one of Eldon’s permanent class teachers had left within an 18-month period between July 2021 and January 2023.
Ian Watkinson also rejected claims made by Mr. Patel in a previous letter to parents, sent in the wake of the Ofsted report, which suggested “all cases of staff grievance” had been “concluded”.
“We can confirm that staff complaints – individual and collective – have not all been concluded,” Mr. Watkinson said.
“An independent panel of Lancashire governors issued very clear recommendations to the school last November about the urgent need for staff complaints against school leadership and governance to be properly re-investigated. To date, that still hasn’t happened.”
Peter Middleman, regional secretary for the North West at the NEU, said that governors at the school had left a ‘legacy of demonstrable failure’.
He told Blog Preston: “The unions representing those directly affected by a recent Ofsted judgement at Eldon Primary School will find this an unhelpful and wholly irresponsible intervention.
“The previous Governors have now walked away from their legacy of demonstrable failure. Meanwhile, education professionals and the wider local community will continue to focus on the steps necessary to provide students with a period of stability in a welcome era of new and democratic governance.”
Fond farewell
Abu Patel paid tribute to Eldon headteacher Azra Butt, whom he described as “incredible”.
“It is a testament to the outstanding Mrs. Butt that our pupils at Eldon Primary get above national average scores in reading, writing, and maths year after year – and that our pupils score above local average for schools with comparable levels of deprivation, English as a second language and special educational needs.
“The highly questionable recent inspection result does not change these facts which our parents know and believe,” the now ex-chair said.
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